


And now?

by KiannaLeigh



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: First Time Fusion, Gen, My First Work in This Fandom, Original Character(s), Original Fusion Character, POV Connie Maheswaran, Post-I Am My Mom, Steven Rescue, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 08:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11009886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiannaLeigh/pseuds/KiannaLeigh
Summary: Connie joins the Crystal Gems on the rescue mission to find Steven, but takes it upon herself to make a huge decision about how the mission should be completed.





	And now?

“What do we do?” Connie turned in the water. Somewhere in her mind, it occurred to her that she was treading water while weighed down with a massive alien sword strapped to her back. It was impossible, but it was the least impossible thing she’d seen since meeting Steven. The most impossible, of course, was that he had revealed himself to the Homeworld gems, and gone away with them as a willing prisoner. “What do we do?!”

The gems were amazing. So amazing. They had magical stones at the core of their beings; their bodies were made out of light; they could summon weapons and fight monsters. They were crying.

“Rose,” Pearl muttered. “Oh god, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“There has to be something we can do, right?” Amethyst was turning in circles. Pearl was on one side of her, and Garnet was on the other. Ruby and Sapphire were on the other.

“I can’t see.” Sapphire seemed to be hyperventilating. But gems didn’t need to breathe. “I can’t see! I can’t-”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Ruby was waving her hands, patting the air around Sapphire. “We can do this. We can get him back.” But ice was forming on Sapphire’s wet clothes. How? And steam was rising from the water near Ruby. Better not get too close.

“Lars? Lars?!” Sadie was screaming and screaming. Connie wished she’d be quiet, so someone could think of something that would help.

“Connie? Connie?!”

* * *

 

Connie woke up with a start. She shifted the tiny, uncomfortable seat that she was strapped in. How they had ever made it out of the atmosphere in this heap, she would never really understand, even though she had helped build it. Between Pearl, Peridot, Steven’s Uncle Andy, and a contact of Connie’s mother they had somehow gotten together the parts and the expertise to build a tiny space ship based off gem designs.

The Crystal Gems, Connie, Peridot, and Lapis, had all left Earth to find Steven. Connie’s parents and Greg had needed to be locked up, with instructions to Sadie to let them out later, in order for the group to leave. None were pleased about Steven’s decision or about being left behind by the gems and Connie. Connie was sure she’d be grounded until college for this, but nothing mattered except getting Steven back. She hoped they could get to him in time.

Time. How long had she been asleep? How long had her parents been locked up? How long had Steven been in the clutches of Homeworld?

“We’re there?” It surprised Connie how steady her voice sounded, how hard. She felt hard, numb, turned off. Steven meant so much to her, and now he was in the worst danger of his life. Maybe if she hadn’t said her name to Aquamarine? Maybe if she’d forced him to fuse?

“No.” It was Pearl. She had on a flight suit of sorts, just like the one she’d made for Connie. There was quick stitching of Steven’s shield on each of their shoulders. “We’re not going to Homeworld.”

“What?” Connie whispered. She felt the same tingle that had coursed through her just before she’d tossed Jeff that day in the hallway. The urge to act, to defend herself, and ultimately, defend Steven.

“We’ve already had a brush with the Diamonds once,” Pearl muttered. She looked so tired. “We might not get away with it again. But last time, we snuck out under the watch of Holly Blue Agate.”

Connie wrinkled her brows. “Okay? Could we use that to help Steven?”

Surprisingly Pearl looked startled and then smiled. She smiled the same way as Connie’s mother and father did. It was a smile that said, “I am so proud of you.”

“That brownnoser will do anything to keep up her precious appearance in front of the Diamonds.” Pearl clicked her tongue. “If we can get her to take a squad of the Alpha Kindergarten's amethysts to Homeworld, maybe they can break Steven out without us even having to go near the place. We can even have the Diamonds give chase to Pink’s human zoo. There we can fake shattering Steven. Holly can let the amethysts take the fall, and they can claim to have kidnapped and shattered Steven to avenge Pink Diamond in the name of Blue Diamond. Earth was Pink’s; they were Pink’s. And Blue kept them in service after Pink was gone. To a loyal gem, being of service to the Diamonds is all their made for. It’s a believable story.”

“Steven will never let those amethysts be shattered to save him.” Connie wondered why she had phrased it like that. Didn’t she care if strangers got hurt to protect Steven?

 _‘You’re too important!’ Pearl screamed._ But that was only in Connie’s memory.

Really, Pearl laughed shallowly. “After we’re sure the Diamonds have seen Steven shattered, we’re going to get all the human world gems out of there. Including all the other Roses, if we can. The Roses can remind bubbled in the temple, while the amethysts can remain with us, on Earth. The Diamonds think that their geo-weapon is still active.”

“The cluster?” Connie breathed.

“The cluster. They’ll think Earth’s time is done soon anyway. Maybe that can buy us enough time to rebuild Rose’s army under Steven. We can train you, Connie. And unbubble Bismuth for weapons. Steven can figure out how to heal corruption, and Peridot wants to reopen the Kindergartens in limited areas. We can build a force to combat the Diamonds and end this, once and for all.”

Nodding Connie looked away. The gems were tense. Peridot’s chair was surrounded by pencils snapped in the middle. Lapis was sitting with her knees drawn up, and her head tucked into her lap. Amethyst was eating spare nuts and bolts that kept falling out of her feet as she walked around the tiny ship. How Connie had slept with that noise, she had to attribute to stress. The only one who looked remotely calm was Garnet, but only if you didn’t look at her for very long. Her color patterns kept shifting and shifting. She couldn’t make her visor stay materialized.

“We’ll be there soon,” Pearl said sadly. Of course, she wasn’t sad over the statement. She was just sad. Connie thought about such tiny nuances since Steven left, for something for her mind to do.

“Right,” she muttered.

* * *

 

Pink’s base was actually sort of nice. It was huge and pretty. It took them a few hours to get there, but if this had been a pleasure trip, it would have been worth the wait. This wasn’t a pleasure trip, but after detaining Holly Blue Agate, there was little for Connie to do but wander around and find something to do since the gems had stopped paying attention to her.

In the end, it had been deemed too dangerous to allow Holly to roam free. They couldn’t trust she wouldn’t turn them in and lie about their deal to the Diamonds. It had been Connie who pointed out that she could simply tell them that she had captured the Crystal Gems for the Diamonds when she reached them. Who were they going to believe, the faithful Holly Blue, or the traitorous Crystal Gems?

So, Amethyst had taken a team to go get Steven, while everyone else stayed behind at the human zoo. Connie wandered the base, found Pink Diamond's room, and got all the Roses on their ship. They had their makeshift ship tethered to a better, Gem-made ship. Connie guessed the gems had forgotten about the plan to get the Roses to Earth. Since they were going to be kept bubbled, on the count that their loyalty to a rebellious Rose Quartz’s army couldn’t be assured, they were probably a low priority to the Crystal Gems. They were not a priority at all to Connie, but she needed to keep busy.

Connie was alone in the base entrance, managing the scores of bubbled Rose Quartzs when the ship the had carried off Amethyst came back, and Amethyst came running out of it.

“What happened?” Connie asked, but she didn’t yell. “Where’s Steven?”

“Blue Diamond took him away,” Amethyst answered. “That’s what people are saying, and no one knows where to.”

Connie paused, frowned, and held out her hand like she wanted to arm wrestle. “Fuse with me.”

“W-What?!”

“Fuse with me, Amethyst! Garnet and Pearl, Peridot and Lapis, they’re too scared to go to Homeworld. It’s why they didn’t go with you to find Steven. They’ll all be recognized and they know it. They can’t get near him, but you can. I can if I’m with you.”

“But! Can we even fuse?”

“We have to try. Or you have to go alone.”

Amethyst looked scared suddenly. Very scared. “Okay. We’ll do it.”

“Right.”

Connie wasn’t sure how this would go. Even if she Amethyst could fuse, what sort of fusion would it be? They were so different, even more than Amethyst and Pearl were different. Pearl. And on top of everything, Connie was Pearl’s student. But only Earthling could do this. Connie knew that with absolute certainty.

* * *

 

“We’re going to get him back!” Connie said.

“Get him back?” Greg screamed. “How are we even going to get to him? We don’t have a spaceship anymore!” He looked like he was going to either cry, or start breaking things. He kept switching from despair to rage and back again.

“Peridot and I can build one,” Pearl insisted, smiling nervously.

“And then you can go and get Steven?” Sadie asked. “And Lars?”

“Yes,” Garnet answered. “But we have to work fast. The Diamonds are still furious over Pink’s destruction. They’ll want to put Rose on trial for it.”

“But we’re going to save him,” Connie said.

“And if you don’t?” Connie’s mother and father had come to Beach City when she refused to come home. While her father had made tea and coffee to try to get things to calm down, especially in front of the humans of Beach City who’d come to watch things unfold: Saddie, Saddie’s mother, and Lars’s parents. But as always, Connie’s mother was all business. “What will happen to Steven?” she asked. “Will they hurt him?”

Steven was Connie’s friend, so whatever could happen to him, Connie’s mother probably assumed could happen to Connie.

When Connie looked at the gems, watched them explain and console, she had come to two realizations. The first was, they were going to have to deal with Greg and her parents in order to leave. The second was that none of the Homeworld-made gems could get this done. This was Earth’s problem, and in the end, only Earthlings could solve it.

* * *

 

“What are … who are … who am … I?”

Connie felt, strange. She could feel her entire body, every organ, every cell. Gem’s bodies were conscious manifestations of light. That consciousness now made them, made her, aware of every squishy part their strange half flesh body.

Rose’s sword was strapped to her back. Amethyst’s whip was hidden in the gem in her chest. She was taller, but not as tall was Stevonnie. She was curvy, strong, smart, and sure.

Connithyst turned to find the team of amethysts staring at her. She stared at them back, then something occurred to her, the logic of Connie's mind, with a spontaneous flash of creativity from Amethyst. The feeling of summoning her gem weapon was easier than Connithyst thought it would be. Connie was well used to wielding gem powers. It was different, being Connithyst rather than Stevonnie, but no more different than being Connithyst instead of Smoky Quartz. Connithyst drew her whip, cracked it once, then straighten it into a rapier. She had only two arms but that still left her other hand free to hold Rose’s cutlass. She tested the weight of each of the swords, cutlass in her left hand, rapier in her right, then nodded and put them away, the cutlass in its scabbard, and the rapier in her gem.

“Okay,” Connithyst breathed. She felt so sure of the path in front of her. She knew the way and knew she’d be able to handle whatever happened by just changing strategies on the fly. “Let’s go get Steven.”

They were too late.

Connithyst reached Homeworld and had no trouble getting around. She looked like a powerful quartz soldier, and she used memories of Jasper, and Connie's mother to adopt and project an air of authority. When she and her team reached Homeworld, Connithyst just walked in like she belonged there and talked like she owned the place. It was too easy to move around and get the information she wanted. But still, she was too late.

Blue Diamond really had taken Steven away and had several hours head start on them.

“What do we do now, Connithyst?” one of the amethysts asked her.

Connithyst glanced at her, angry, hurt, and wanting to fight. Steven had made her feel strong, had made her see herself as worth something. Steven loved her, each part of her, and being the only two people to have fused with him, made Steven special to Connithyst.

“We keep going,” the fusion answered. “We keep going until we get him back.”

**Author's Note:**

> I will extend this into an whole AU of this season if there's interest in it. So please, Kudos, comment, and subscribe to this story for more of Connithyst's adventure to rescue Steven. Thank you for Reading.


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